For Immediate Release: Flagrant Violations of Voting Rights in CT

Flagrant Violations of Voting Rights in CT

• Nominating petitions for Iraq War Veteran and socialist Senate candidate still not checked

• Signatures illegally rejected

• Town clerks beginning to revise signature count

For Immediate Release

Contact: Ernie Gotta: 860-967-9836

Dozens of nominating petitions for US Senate candidate Fred Linck (an Iraq War veteran and Socialist Action candidate) are still in the hands of town clerks, weeks after their deadline (possibly containing hundreds of uncounted signatures), and initial examinations of counted signatures suggests that clerks have been illegally rejecting hundreds, if not thousands of signatures.

With more than 6,700 signatures already verified, it is clear that there are easily enough valid signatures among the remaining uncounted or rejected signatures (some 4,200) to bring the total above the 7,500 needed for ballot status. Registrars and clerks in Hartford and New Haven have already admitted to serious errors and have begun to revise their signature counts.

Since Wednesday, September 12th campaign volunteers have been reviewing rejected signatures on nominating petitions.

Within the first two hours they found that:

• 71 voters were ruled off by Hartford town clerks for being unaffiliated - which is not a legal reason to reject signatures for an independent candidate.

• 25 voters were ruled off in New Haven for being inactive - not a legal reason to reject signatures unless the date of birth is missing (these voters have included their birth-dates)

• 72 legible signatures were ruled off in New London for being illegible

Volunteers have since found numerous signatures on Bridgeport petitions that were ruled off for being inactive as well. They are also finding that a very high percentage of signers marked as unregistered are in fact registered. For instance, in a sample of 27 rejected signatures from Wethersfield, 12 show up on the voter rolls (or 44.4%).

The violations discovered so far in the sample suggest that hundreds, and likely thousands of signatures have been illegally rejected by town clerks. Even a conservative estimate provides enough signatures to qualify Linck for ballot status.

Volunteers also found that 56 petition sheets are missing, presumably still in town clerk offices where they were supposed to be checked weeks ago. 56 petition sheets can contain up to 1,680 signatures.

Even half-filled, the 56 missing sheets alone would provide enough signatures to qualify Linck for ballot status.

“We have been astonished to find such obvious and glaring errors in the validation of our signatures” said Fred Linck. “We fully expect to qualify for the ballot when the signatures are reviewed and counted properly.”

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